Litinsects

Litinsects #19: Metamorphosis, Part 1: Holometabola Who would like to join me on this 3-part adventure of insect metamorphosis? It is my hope that by the end, you will be TRANSFORMED... into a person who knows a lot more about insect metamorphosis than when you started! 😁 So here goes METAMORPHOSIS PART 1: Everyone knows that a caterpillar 🐛 makes a cocoon and emerges as a butterfly 🦋 , right? This is an example of COMPLETE METAMORPHOSIS (as opposed to incomplete which I will go over tomorrow). Butterflies, and a whole lot of other insects, are HOLOMETABOLOUS (holo = whole/entire, metabola = change), so called because the insect undergoes drastic changes in body layout and function and each stage is completely different in appearance from the others. This includes 4 life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. 1) All insect lives begin with an EGG. Most hatch within a few days after being laid 2) From the egg emerges a LARVA. Some have legs, some do...